The Marriage of Maria Braun    Rainer Werner Fassbinder (FDR; 1980; 15)  Hanna Schygulla

With an outstanding performance from Hanna Schygulla, this is one of the great European films of the era.  Truffaut destribed Maria Braun as: “… an original work of epic and poetic qualities”.   Many critics regard the film as Fassbinder’s finest work and it was also a commercial success.  Using the career of the eponymous Maria, Fassbinder probes the post war soul of West Germany as the country moves from complete devastation to a condition a wealth created by its total embrace of the ethos of Captalism.   Maria’s life emeshes her in the psychic and economic rebuilding of her country.